History of the city Milovice
1396 – 1904

The oldest known depiction of the city Milovice is on Müller’s map of Bohemia from the year 1720.

On an old route from Prague to Jičín stood a Zeman residence with a fortress, in charters marked as Villa Milewicz. By the end of the 14^th century, this was the residence of Vladyka Holomek. There used to be a second demesne farm, which was cultivated by the brothers Sperek and Václav. The first written mention of Milovice was from 4^th of January 1396, in regards to the passing of Sperek’s wife, Pavlína. Afterwards, a whole lot of different owners took turns here. In the second half of the 15^th century, Milovice fell under the control of the Lys manor if the Smiřický family. In the year 1509, the newly built stronghold of Milovice, along with the demesne farm and the entire village, was purchased by the burgrave Bedřich of Donín, later the founder of the vast Benátecké manor. The inherited property from his quarrelling brothers was obtained by the emperor Rudolf II in the year 1599. The court of Milovice then owned 321 hectares of airable land.

After the 30 years’ war, the emperor Ferdinant III. Gifted the Benátecké manor to the cavalry general, Jan of Werth.

The Milovice fortress itself seemingly seized to exist during the 30 years war, when the whole region was devastated by Swedish and Saxon troops. The local inhabitants were for generations making a living by cultivating land and mining wood from nearby forests. All the way until the year 1848, they were subject to the labour obligation towards the owner of the estate. By the beginning of the 18^th century, there were 151 people living in Milovice, that were capable of receiving the sacraments. Milovice, which did not have a church, fell under the Perish of Lysá nad Labem, and were later attached to Mladá. Count Příchovský had several grunts and a pub built in Milovice, which he provided to his subjects as a hereditary lease.

A colourised postcard from the year 1909, depicting the former village common. In the building on the left used to be the fire brigade.

In the first half of the 19^th century, the Benátecké manor was acquired by Leopold Felix, Count of Thun-Hohenstein, who also built a distillery at the Milovice large estate. His youngest son Leopold Bohumil tried to uplift the agricultural level of the local region. However, he became so indebted that the Benátecké manor fell to the K. u. K. Privilligerte Österreichisches Länderbank in 1885. The large estate and lands that were not purchased by the Imperial and Royal Ministry of War were acquired by Rudolf Ferdinand Kinsky in 1905. His heirs held the Milovice estate all the way until 1939.

A postcard from the year 1902. Until the founding of the military training ground, most inhabitants were employed at the local large estate, of which the distillery was also a part of.

Did you know…? Below the village of Milovice there used to be a pond through which a stream flowed from Vápensko. The pond was drained in the 18th century and peat was extracted from it. However, it did not prove itself very useful for heating.